With the Government of Saskatchewan approving legislation for rideshare companies to operate in the province, there will be a new influx of competition for cab companies in whatever cities they set up business.

Regulations taking effect on Friday dictate that taxi and limousine drivers will have the same driver’s license options as rideshare drivers.

The Minister Responsible for SGI, Joe Hargrave, said the regulations should make competition a benefit to the taxi cab market.

“We think that we’ve come up with a good balance between the taxi associations and the rideshare companies, and we think we’ve levelled off the playing field for them fairly well,” said Hargrave.

Although the ridesharing regulations do mean more options for preventing impaired driving, cab companies may not see ridesharing companies as a benefit to the industry.

“I think they’ll have some concerns, it’s another competitive in their business, right?” he said. “But we expect that they’re going to continue to co-exist. They do in every other city. They’ll still do very well, there’s a big demand, and that’s not going away. The demand for cabs is not going to go away.”

Hargrave said, in fact, there are rideshare companies interested in getting the ball rolling in the province.

“We’ve had interest and consultations with a number of rideshare companies that are interested in coming to Saskatchewan,” said Hargrave.

Uber and Lyft, in particular, are among the companies in discussion with SGI.

“Both of those companies have indicated that they very much want to come into Saskatchewan, and they’re going to wait and see where the cities land with their regulations, but we’re very confident that a rideshare company will be operating in Saskatchewan,” said the Minister.